


The Moments Between

by Rochelle_Templer



Series: Inktober For Writers 2017 [15]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-16
Packaged: 2019-01-18 02:42:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12379215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rochelle_Templer/pseuds/Rochelle_Templer
Summary: Peri wondered what the Doctor had in mind for "a quiet evening"....





	The Moments Between

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of my Inktober for Writers project. The prompt for this fic was "intimacy".

Peri was confused.

The Doctor had spent most of the day rattling off a list of places he wanted to go to next and telling her all about each one in the fanciest language he could use. Peri had told him to pick whatever he wanted and had gone off to look after the plants in her room. As she was leaving, he told her to dress for a nice dinner because he planned on landing just in time for one wherever they ended up. She spent an hour tending to her plants and then chose a long, navy-blue dress for dinner. When she was ready to return to the console room, she had expected him to tell her what their destination was going to be.

Instead, the console room was completely empty. And from what she could tell on the monitors, they were still in the time vortex.

“Doctor?” she called out. No response. She looked to see if, perhaps, he was doing some maintenance on the TARDIS, but saw no sign of him anywhere.

Peri sighed and turned back to the corridors. Given how big the TARDIS was, it could take hours if not days to find him, and she wasn’t sure how to locate him using the instruments on the control panel. She tried to think back on their conversations from earlier that day, but couldn’t think of anything the Doctor said that would give her a hint to where he was now.

_‘Well…might as well look around. It’s either that or stand here for who knows how long….’_

She strolled back down the main corridor, the skirt of her dress swishing near her ankles and her eyes scrunched as she tried to think of where she should search first. Peri felt her stomach grumble, so she tried the kitchen. Unfortunately, the Doctor wasn’t there, but she did see some dirty dishes on the counter.

Peri frowned. It would be easy enough for her to make something for herself, but a part of her still didn’t like the idea of the Doctor having dinner without her and then disappearing. Especially when he had acted like he was excited to take her somewhere special.

She let out a huff and went back out into the corridor. She tried the library and the alternate console room, but had no luck. She was just about to head back to her room when a noise behind her caught her attention. She whirled around and followed the sound into what looked like another greenhouse from the corridor.

After stepping in through the doorway, Peri paused and took in the sight of the plants around her. The layout wasn’t like any greenhouse she had ever seen. It looked more like the room was a piece of a forest that had been transplanted into the TARDIS. She looked up to see a light blue glass ceiling with white, pin-point lights that glowed through frosted panes. The light dimmed slightly as she reached the center of the room and found the Doctor standing next to a table.

“Ah, there you are, Peri,” he grinned at her. He swept an arm over the setting on the table. “Dinner is served.”

“And what’s all this, Doctor?” she smiled as she walked closer to him. “I thought we were going to go to one of the moons of Trixalis or land next to the waterfalls of Perlodin.”

“Well, we can do that later,” the Doctor said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I’ve had this room for so long and never had an occasion to use it. Then it occurred to me: who better than a botany student could appreciate this room?”

Peri smiled as she sat down and craned her neck around to get a better look at the variety of flowers in bloom near the table. She glanced back at the Doctor and blinked in surprise as she finally realized that he had switched his normal rainbow suit for one with an identical cut, but with only hues of blue.

“You should wear that suit more often,” Peri said. “It looks good on you.”

“This? Bah,” the Doctor replied. “Too plain. I’m only wearing it because some of the flowers here don’t respond well to yellow and orange. Nasty reaction, really. Reminds me of the time I went to Yorolus. It was right in the middle of their ‘Coming of Age’ ceremony….”

Peri was curious at the idea that there were flowers that didn’t like certain colors, but she decided to save that question for later. For now, she just wanted to enjoy the beauty of the room and the listen to the Doctor spin another story from his travels.  

More than anything else though, she wanted to hold onto this moment where the most amazing man she had ever met had crafted a world just for the two of them.


End file.
